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From the book "Elements of Style," if two clauses have the same subject and joined by the conjunction "and" then we do not use the subject in the second clause.

e.g., He has had several years' experience and is thoroughly competent

What if there are more than 2 clauses, does the above rule hold good?

For example, is the following sentence correct?

In 2015 I didn't have the courage to participate, in 2016 couldn't clear the preliminary round, and in 2017 was among the 10 finalists.

Also, can the readability by increased by rephrasing or with better punctuation?

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    The sentence would work better with someone's name instead of "I", which is painless to repeat (especially as many people like talking about themself). I would replace "and" with "but".
    – Weather Vane
    Nov 25, 2017 at 20:32

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What you have is fine, but if it were my exercise I'd rephrase (with a different conjunction).

In 2015 I didn't have the courage to participate. In 2016 I couldn't clear the preliminary round. But in 2016 I was among the 10 finalists.

The idea there is to set up the triplet for a bigger climax, which separating the clauses into separate sentences provides more emphasis.

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  • Thanks, you rephrased it well. I now see the emphasis on the last clause. However, I feel, repeating the subject breaks the continuity. How about the following phrasing. "In 2015 I didn't have the courage to participate, in 2016 couldn't clear the preliminary round, but in 2017 was among the 10 finalists." Thanks.
    – Sky
    Nov 26, 2017 at 4:58
  • It doesn't break the continuity, it actually enhances it. But it is your sentence, so do what seems right to you.
    – Robusto
    Nov 26, 2017 at 13:15

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